Arctic Star for “Mr Butterfly”

George Courtenay Yorke, shown here opening the 2012 Diamond Jubilee Fete,  has been awarded the Arctic Star seventy years on for his part in the Arctic convoys which conveyed food and necessary supplies to our wartime allies, Soviet Russia, under the most perilous conditions in the second world war.

Winston Churchill described these operations as the “worst journey in the world.”

The decoration arrived in time for George’s 90th birthday celebrations in mid-June.

After retiring from a legal career, George did much voluntary work for wild life conservation and was responsible for creating butterfly reserves notably Yew Hill and Magdalen Down.

He has lived in the same house for sixty years and is locally nicknamed “Mr. Butterfly”.

JY